Congratulations

We have used Craigslist in the past to figure out where rents should be. Take your time finding a tenet, and for the love of God never rent to friends or family.

Semi-gloss paint is your friend. A good thick coat wipes clean pretty well.

Good luck

Yeah, being out the money for a good inspection is just buying insurance... you may not need it, but it's worth it when you do.

The main thing I'm worried about is the termites.  On the property condition report they said they had possible evidence back in 2005 and treated without any damage and no repairs required.  Nothing conclusive.

Turns out there was some damage to some of the siding that I didn't see that the inspector found.  Can't really tell more without pulling it off and looking, so I demanded that in the inspection addendum with the ability to walk if I don't like what we find.

Ok, time for an update.  The seller got all the repairs done we asked for.   However, we did have some drama during the closing.    We were a few days out from our original closing date and we asked for an extension while we were waiting on the bank to finish up the financing.  Our original date was April 20th,  but we asked to move it out to May 21st just to make absolutely sure the bank would have enough time, even though we knew it probably wouldn't take nearly that long.  Unfortunately, the seller flipped out about that and was about to kill the whole deal.  She was upset that she'd been doing all the repair work and that it wasn't going to be ready by our original date.

When I initially applied for the loan, I told the bank to hold off on starting the appraisal while we reviewed the results of the home inspection and made sure that we were actually going to go through with the purchase.   Once I knew things were ok, I told them to get the process moving so we could close asap.  So there wasn't much I could do to make the bank go any faster.   I knew it might take a week or two longer than our original date, but I figured we would just get a short extension and it wouldn't be an issue. Turns out it wasn't that easy.   I eventually got her to calm down by writing her a nice letter and agreeing to pay for the home warranty she had purchased,  so that was another $520 out of my pocket.    Turned out the bank finished by the end of April, and we closed on May 1.   I think part of the problem was that we had two realtors between the two of us, so every time I needed to communicate with her I had to go through my realtor and her realtor, and we had this stupid telephone game going on.     I think I might just look for a for sale by owner property the next time I buy one.

I'm just glad the process is over with, it was a lot more trouble than I went through when I bought the first one.  It's not an absolutely perfect house,  but it is an upgrade over my current one and the price was right. We've been gradually moving our stuff, and hope to be completely done in a month or so.  Being able to get some extra income from the rental will be nice too, and I'm hoping to have both of them paid for in 12 years or so.   Then I will be able to rent out both of them, and we can step up to our ideal dream home.   

Anyway on to the pictures.

Front of the house:


Side/Back of the house:


Garage View:


Living Room:


Kitchen Area Off Living Room:


Rest of Kitchen:


Main Bathroom:


Master Bedroom


Another View of Master Bedroom, there is a 2nd closet behind the photographer you can't see:


Second Bedroom, almost the same size as master but only 1 closet:


Another View of Second Bedroom:


Main Room in Basement, there's a nice built in bookshelf next to the office door that you can't see:


Another view of Main Room in Basement.  Door goes to the garage:


Office off main room in basement:



Basement Bedroom:


Basement Bathroom:


Laundry Area.  Washer Dryer Hookups are around that corner:

Yeah I'm not too crazy about it.  I'll probably replace that sometime in the next few years.     Could be worse I suppose,  at least it isn't burnt orange shag or anything.   

I got it at 4%,  with 5% down, and no points.    I could have put more down, but it wouldn't have really made any difference in my loan terms.   Figured it was better to have a little extra cash on hand to handle the moving expenses.    The current rates might be a hair lower, but with my relatively small loan amount that won't really be a huge amount of savings.   I can't complain too much with 4% on a 30 year loan.   My first house was 5.5% on a 15 year loan, back before I refinanced it last year.   

Been moving my stuff gradually this week, that hasn't been much fun.   I'm hoping to have most of the smaller stuff moved in the next week or two,  then I'll be able to call the movers for the big furniture and appliances.   Should have enough stuff over there to start living there in about two weeks.    Then it's just a matter of clearing out any remaining junk and getting my current one ready for renting sometime in June or July.